Shanghai: Teams nominate qualifying drivers

A1GP SHANGHAI, CHINA - DRIVERS NOMINATED FOR QUALIFYING

Shanghai, China - Excitement is building ahead of this weekend's A1GP Shanghai, China with A1 Team New Zealand, the only team that can stop Germany claiming the championship title this weekend, topping the timing sheets in this morning's final practice session while A1 Team Germany set only the ninth fastest lap time. With race winning Nico Hulkenberg back behind the wheel of the German car, the team put in a fastest lap of 1.36.874, nearly one second off pace setter Jonny Reid (1.35.878).

Last year's Feature race winners, A1 Team Malaysia benefited from yesterday's track time, taking the opportunity to learn the new section of the track, clocking the second fastest lap time, up from ninth yesterday afternoon. Switzerland rounded up the top three, again improving on their seventh place finish of yesterday.

For A1 Teams USA and India, consistency seemed to be the key as they remained in fourth and fifth respectively while for A1 Team Great Britain, yesterday's pace failed to materialise. Driver Robbie Kerr, who is looking to match the Feature race win scored by team mate, Oliver Jarvis at the last event in Mexico, set a fastest lap time of 1.36.622, over one second slower than yesterday's time (1.35.573).

The teams now have to decide on their set up before qualifying for the Sprint race begins at 14.15 this afternoon. Qualifying consists of four 15 minute sessions with a five minute break between each. Only one driver per A1 Team is allowed to take part in Qualifying and that driver must have completed at least three timed laps in an Official Practice session. Each driver is limited to three laps - effectively one "flying lap" - per session and must record at least two times, an aggregate of which will determine that A1 Team's position on the grid for Sunday's Sprint race. The grid for the Feature race will be determined by the outcome of the Sprint race. <pre> Nominated drivers for Qualifying - A1GP Shanghai, China

A1 Team         Driver
Australia       Ian Dyk
Brazil          Vitor Meira
Canada          Sean McIntosh
China           Congfu Cheng
Czech Republic  Filip Salaquadra
France          Jean Karl Vernay
Germany         Nico Hulkenberg
Great Britain   Robbie Kerr
India           Narain Karthikeyan
Indonesi        Ananda Mikola
Ireland         Richard Lyons
Italy           Enrico Toccacelo
Lebanon         Allam Khodair
Malaysia        Alex Yoong
Mexico          Salvador Duran
Netherlands     Renger van der Zande
New Zealan      Jonny Reid
Pakistan        Nur Ali
Portugal        Joao Urbano
South Africa    Alan van der Merwe
Switzerland     Sebastien Buemi
USA             Jonathan Summerton

</pre> -credit: a1gp